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Basic principles of safe surfing on the Internet from your computer and mobile devices

The statistics shows that approximately one thousand eight hundred Internet users are subject to cyber-attacks every minute. This means that safe surfing on the Internet is impossible without taking the respective measures: a proper configuration of your browser, use of modern technologies for data encryption, anti-virus software, firewalls and so on. Until your computer or mobile device is reliably protected to surf the Internet, any visit to online store, bank, or entertainment service may potentially result in troubles and even loss of money.

There are many dangers out there in the virtual world. These include viruses disguised as useful programs, malicious scripts activated when opening an infected page - it is hard to list all the existing types of danger, and new ones are added every day. Even imprudent opening of an ordinary electronic document from an unknown sender can cause problems, such as loss of personal data and reinstallation of the operating system.

Any action on the Internet, even with good anti-virus software and properly configured firewall, can pose a threat to your computer and data.

Setting up Internet browser

Today, there are many programs to surf the Internet called the browsers. The most popular of them are Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer. There are also other alternatives, such as SeaMonkey or Chromium, but they are not as popular as these five leaders.

The security level of these browsers is roughly identical. They all have a set of SSL root certificates and built-in anti-phishing protection, and are able to assess the security of visited sites and destroy their traces on the Internet - clean caches, history of visits and cookies. These programs are regularly updated, and, aside from expanding the features, these updates fix the known bugs and vulnerabilities. But these measures are insufficient to make surfing absolutely safe.

One of the efficient ways to significantly improve your security while surfing the Internet is to disable Java-Script, Flash and ActiveX in your browser. The malicious code gets to your computer or mobile device from the Internet through these. However, as a result of such actions certain sections of the sites may not be loaded, while many of the web-functions will simply stop working.

Attempts to find a reasonable compromise between security and functionality make browser configuration a pain. With the exception of Google Chrome and Firefox, where there is a free small plugin that allows you to disable or enable the execution of these modules with one mouse click. But the decision on whether it will be safe or not is left at the discretion of the user. In other browsers you will have to go to settings and enable or disable these options manually.

Pop-up ads

Banners with pop-up ads are the fertile soil for a variety of "pests" - viruses, Trojans, malicious scripts and other malicious code. Most browsers are able to deal with them, providing for relative safety of the system, but often it is necessary to install and configure special programs, such as Adguard or Pop-Up Stopper. In any case, one must treat pop-up ads with extreme caution and avoid going to the links offered thereby.

Antiviruses and firewalls

Reliable and proven anti-virus and firewall in most cases deliver good protection for your computer from the Internet threats. Sometimes these programs are integrated into a single system, thus making it easier to configure and ensuring compatibility. A striking example of such a system is provided by the famous Kaspersky Lab product – Kaspersky Internet Security. Daily updates keep the signature database up-to-date, thus effectively combating even the latest threats.

However, all these precautions are unable to guarantee one hundred percent protection and data security. They only reduce the likelihood of your confidential data falling into the wrong hands.

Using VPN as a way to protect data

All the aforementioned tools, including browser configuration, antivirus, firewalls and ad-blocking software, are only supplements that are able to protect against unauthorized access to your computer or mobile device. But they are unable to protect against interception of confidential data and passwords, which is also very important. VPN - virtual private network technology - is the best tool to be used on your computer or mobile device for these purposes.

The main advantage of VPN providing for reliable transmission of any data is the use of effective cryptographic encryption algorithms, which are almost impossible to hack. They are used in conjunction with the methods of identification, authentication and authorization. These processes have virtually no effect on the resources of your computer or mobile device, thus letting you quickly and safely surf the Internet through VPN. Installing the required software and configuring it is not difficult, even a novice user will be able to handle it.